Posts Tagged ‘recruitment’

Recruiting via social media just a little more interesting in Belgium. LinkedIn, the uncrowned champion for recruitment is now being challenged by Facebook and their job vacancy post.

Of course, people will say that LinkedIn is the platform to find “white” collar workers and Facebook “blue” collar workers but let’s be honest both categories use Facebook so the pool there is much bigger (in Belgium 3.4 million vs 7 million).

From an employer’s point of view, this offers some great opportunities and challenges. So let the battle begin.

The incumbent LinkedIn

LinkedIn recently changed the “job” vacancy approach. Here is a quick rundown of the process:

1. Define the basic job title and area

2. Complete the description

3. Define Skills and Experience levels

4. Payment options

You will notice that LinkedIn will indicate the number of candidates you might get after 30 days based on your budget. I get mixed messages from customers when it comes to results but I am sure LinkedIn will argue that it is the best way platform overall.

Now enters Facebook

Now that Facebook has added “Publish a Job Post”, I fear that this will become more popular than LinkedIn… Let take a look at the process here too:

Select the option for the post types

2. Enter the job description info

The biggest difference is that this is a post on your page and gets organic views. No just like any other post on Facebook you will need to increase the visibility by boosting (aka promoting) this post.

3. Payment options

There seems to be 9€/day minimum budget required by Facebook but the numbers here a little different. Rather than giving you an idea of how many people you might get to apply, Facebook will tell you how many people you could reach.

If you are looking for a more cost-efficient way to create visibility for your job openings on LinkedIn (on Facebook that is already the case), you might be considering posting the job openings as a public post on your company/fan page and promoting the post as “promoted content”. The final bill will be considerably less and your targeting options increased. Now whether the platforms will react quicker to this “improper” use of the platform is to be seen.

So, who will win the battle for talent? Or should I say, the “war for your money”? Not sure, but an interesting development altogether. What do you think? Drop your comments in the comment box below.

Over the summer months of 2013 I have done some research how recruiters in Belgium present themselves on LinkedIn (750 profiles of recruitment professionals reviewed) and here are my conclusions (and also the reasons why candidates do not click on recruiter’s profiles).

Reason #1: 50% have NO profile picture. Recruiters want to see what candidates look like, but so do candidates want to know what recruiters look like.

Reason #2: They have no contact information. And yes, only the 1st degree contacts can see you email/phone number but still as a recruiter you want to have the “good” candidates find you easily. Only 1 in 8 has their email/phone number visible somewhere in their profile! Only 50% mention their website!

BTW. Few job seekers are not using the Inmail functions.

Reason #3: Only 33% have a personalized Vanity URL. This could suggest a newbie or someone who does not care about their image or profile.

Reason #4: Few contact (Less than 250). I understand you are careful with who you let into your network but less than 500 contacts does not foster any confidence that the recruiter is “well connected”. It is also unlikely they will connect with you, even if they do not share who they are connected to..

Reason #5: About 50% have completed their summary information (your elevator pitch). When it comes to their work history it seems they are not willing to provide much detail about it other than their title. Less than 10% have discovered the multi-media possibilities of LinkedIn. It seems the motto is “less is better”. Again not fostering confidence.

Reason #6: Recruiters do not seems to share much which groups they belong to. Most are part of 8 to 12 groups mostly general or peer groups. So again, it makes it difficult for candidates to get in touch with them. (Tip: remember, you can send free emails to all group members). Additionally, recruiters do not seem to follow any companies. Most follow their own only.

Reason #7: Few recruiters are active on other networks such as Twitter, Facebook or Google+. So Twitter handles can barely be found on their LinkedIn profile.

Reason #9: Recruiters barely use Status Update to inform their network they are looking for candidates or even better sharing valuable information about the recruitment business or processes.

Reason #10: Most recruiters have few endorsements (sign of unhappy candidates?). And recommendations are even more hard to find.

When it comes down to company profile, recruitment companies do not stand out an example. Here are some examples:

76% have their logo on the company profile

33% have a cover picture

41% have Products and Services filled in

22% have recommendations for these Products and Services

33% use Company Status updates to inform their followers about new opportunities or to share information with their contacts.

97% of all company updates NEVER get shared, liked or commented on

Less than 50% mention on their website they can be found on Social Media!

.I would like to end with 2 conclusions:

Recruiters still social media (and LinkedIn in particular) as a one-way street where they control the drive direction. However, social media is a two-way street with a lot of opportunities. Most recruiters are aware they need to have a professional profile but they have a long way to go.

Recruiters seem to forget they need to find new clients and opportunities to fill too, but their profile does not appeal to future clients.

What reasons do you have not to visit recruiter’s profile? Love to hear from you!

If you are interested in getting a copy of the results of my survey (200 companies and 750 profiles reviewed), please mail me at mic@vanguard-leadership.be .

Over the last couple of weeks I have had many recruiters in my social media classes and every time they focus all their attention on LinkedIn as a recruitment tool. When I come to Facebook, they seem to be shutting down. It seems they do not take Facebook seriously as a recruitment environment. Maybe, they should think again.

One reason is that there are over 880 million people on Facebook vs the 147 million on LinkedIn. Secondly, more and more companies are active through a fan pages on Facebook and using it for employer branding. Fan pages allow much more flexibility and functionality to companies and recruiters than the LinkedIn Company pages.

And then there are several applications that have started to give LinkedIn a run for its money. They listen to names such as Glassdoor, Beknown, Talent.me and BranchOut. These apps bring LinkedIn functionality to Facebook making it the next best environment for recruitment.

Glassdoor is a free jobs and career community that offers the world an inside look at jobs and companies. Using the Inside Connection product lets you find companies and what connections inside you might have. Additionally, you can find interview questions, salary ranges, company reviews, and job openings. In true social media style the content is generated by the job seekers.

Beknown is a Facebook application by Monster. There is a lot similarity between Beknown and LinkedIn: create a profile, you connect with people, get recommendations, find jobs, and follow companies. Beknown will let you see the 1st and 2nd line connections like LinkedIn. As you accept people in your network, you earn badges like in Foursquare.

Talent.me is a professional networking app on Facebook which answers the questions where your friends worked and who your inside connections are at companies. The goal of Talent.me is to help you leverage your friend network and make it work for your career advancement. You can also endorse your connections and build communities around specific talents. This social media network seems to be very US focused.

And finally, there is BranchOut. On BranchOut, users leverage their Facebook friends to find jobs, find sales leads, recruit talent, and setup relationships with your professional contacts. BranchOut also operates the largest job board on Facebook with over 3 millions jobs in 60 countries. Recruiters from all over the world are joining BranchOut and taking advantage of lower priced recruitment packages to find and attract new talent.

Of course, LinkedIn is still the standard when it comes to recruitment, but I am convinced that Facebook will take over very soon. Today, it seems that BranchOut is the forerunner but it is still early days.

Do you know any other tools? Feel free to share through the comment field.

When it comes to business networking, LinkedIn has been the trusted platform of choice. A large number of members are conscious of the fact that they need to have a professional profile. A further reduced number is making the most of the “Status update” to bring value to their network and drive traffic to good content. Over the last weeks and months, the level of professionalism of the “Status Updates” has dropped considerably. When you were looking for people that said that “hated their job” or “were bored”, you needed to do this on platforms such as Facebook. We all remember the “OMG, I hate my job post on Facebook”.

Well, today you can find similar posts on LinkedIn with compliments of Twitter. Thanks to LinkedIn Signal search option, these messages now become very apparent and public. I am even convinced the people who have these types of posts are no longer aware of the fact they linked their Twitter account to their LinkedIn account. So messages such as below are now regulars on LinkedIn reducing the level of professionalism of certain people.

On another note, we all know the name calling of Facebook, but say welcome to similar expressions on LinkedIn! Here are some examples.

Do you really want your professional reputation tarnished by these types of comments? Your co-workers are listening to you on business networks… not to mention your current and future employers.

Though it is simple to connect your social media accounts, you really need to think this through. Do you really want people to see where you are eating (Foursquare to Twitter to LinkedIn)? What you are doing in the garden or what store you are at? If you are a frequent Twitterer, the constant status updates will annoy the hell out of your contacts and you will soon be stopped being followed in professional networks achieving the opposite of what you were aiming for.

If you want update your status on multiple networks, consider using tools such as tweetdeck or hootsuite where at least you know where you are posting the messages. And remember to disconnect all post-through actions.

The results from a recent survey (September-October 2010) from Executives Online Ltd (www.executivesonline.com) puts a bit of shade on the so much hyped social networking as a means to efficient recruitment. This is the second year the survey was conducted.

Over 1200 senior executives were surveyed and asked about their opinion and effectiveness of social networking in their personal and professional life. In concurrence with many surveys in this area, including the study done by Mic Adam from Vanguard Leadership of July 2010, LinkedIn was deemed by most professionals as the most interesting social networking site with Facebook coming in as a good second and Twitter as a third. All these platforms grew in importance over the last 12 months.

As can be expected, LinkedIn is viewed as the most useful platform for recruitment (90%) while the other platforms are struggling to get to 50%. This is understandable since the audience surveyed is executive level. Facebook is still viewed as purely private networking while Twitter is a big unknown to many.

With the hype around social media in general, more and more people are resorting to these platforms to find a new job but few have actually succeeded at securing such a position. I think this really reflects the practice in the recruitment market. The numbers do show a 50% increase over last year’s results which holds a good promise for the future. Let’s be honest, social networking still has to find its ‘balanced’ place in the mix of tools used by managers and recruiters both professionals and corporate.

When it comes to hiring via social networking sites, the numbers are even lower. Fewer than 5% of the respondents have actually tried to hire through social networks and even fewer have hired people recruited through social networks. So the conclusion is that the supply of job seekers far exceeds the demand (job offerings). However, here too the numbers are on the rise.

Even though there is certainly an uptake of social networking for recruitment, there are some serious showstoppers which hold true for all trades when it comes to social media. They can be summarized as follows: lack of authenticity, the myth that social networking is for younger and less senior people, and most importantly, the time factor since keeping a social media presence takes time to maintain and follow up. This is where a lot of falls apart. Managers and recruiters, just like marketeers, are finding that using social media & networking is a time consuming activity but keep in mind that going to network meetings is too!

Even though these numbers do not seem to live up to the hype, I feel they really reflect the reality of today. There are, of course, today recruitment agencies as well as private companies that are getting more than 15% of their new hires through social networking, it is realistic to say that social networking recruitments will be responsible for 10% of the new hires in the future. The traditional method will continue to exist and possibly regain their strength.

Recruitment and social media seem to go hand in hand. Candidates who are looking for a new job are often told to update, complete and professionalize their profiles on all of these social media platforms in order to be found easily. However, how professional and visible are recruitment companies and professionals? It is clear that these companies and its professionals are making progress using social media but there is certainly a lack of strategy and direction.

Limited visibility.

Though recruitment companies are present in social media, few promote their presence (14%) on their website of jobsite. 8% of all companies analyzed did not have a website nor a social media presence. LinkedIn is the social media platform that recruitment companies seem to embrace (57%).

Room for improvement on the professional image.

Job searchers are often told to professionalize their social media profile on LinkedIn by completing them as much as possible. However, this can not be said about the recruitment professional! They seem to leave all the good advice behind them with as most notable examples the fact 51% does not have a profile picture and 52% do not mention their own company website.

Lack of engagement.

The limited visibility of recruitment companies and the poor level of professionalism by the recruitment professionals lead to a lack of conversation and/or engagement with candidates. The mostly mentioned reasons for this behavior is the “lack of time” and “lack of results” (aka ROI). The conclusion is that today social media is being used reactively as to mainly verify that the paper resume corresponds the online resume.

Recruitment companies let a lot of opportunities slip because of this lack of engagement with possible candidates including those not actively looking. Engagement will lead the way to finding good candidates with the right profiles more easily as a few companies in the research have demonstrated. Creating the right image will build the brand even in the recruitment business.

This research is the result of a market study done by Vanguard Leadership in July 2010. In this market study we have used social media and the internet to build the dataset. We have analyzed 180 websites of recruitment companies and 850 profiles (in LinkedIn) of recruitment professionals in the Belgian market). The complete report and the presentation can be found on slideshare (report: http://slidesha.re/9rJlt8 or http://scr.bi/atOa17– presentation:http://slidesha.re/9q47JNor http://scr.bi/aM94PS).

Vanguard Leadership (www.vanguard-leadership.be) is a company that helps protect companies and individuals protect their reputation in social media by providing awareness presentations, social media inventories, creating social media policies, training and social media monitoring.

Social media and recruitment are made for each other but they seem to be talking a different language and are not really getting along. A study done (May 2010) by the VDAB (http://bit.ly/bEHqop) claims that less than 3% of Belgian companies use social networking sites to find new employees. Another report (September 2009) by Executives Online in the UK (http://bit.ly/9npaOf) also showed that only 4% of the executives have been recruited via a social networking site. Revealing? Not what you thought? Unheard of?

Today, as most recruiters get their feet wet, they are using social media as just another channel to advertise their job opportunities. They view social media as a bunch of databases, similar to a number of ponds in which they are going to go fishing. Unfortunately, they do not know which pond to go fishing in and what kind of bait to use. So they might end up going fishing for sharks in Lake Geneva! They are very quickly disappointed by the results. Sound familiar?

Another area that recruiters have difficulty grasping, and they are not alone, is what social media is really about: creating content, bringing value and engaging with your audience in a two-way conversation (that goes beyond opportunity they are just trying to fill). Let’s take a look at these areas.

Creating Value:

There are 2 ways to bring value (€/$ and content). There are some who offer cash money for referrals but very few do. The Belgian company Xpertize (www.xpertize.be) is using this practice very efficiently via different social media (Website, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn). The great thing about this practice is that previously interviewed candidates are continuously engaged and working with them.

Providing Content:

When it comes to providing content to their audiences, most recruiters and companies are not even thinking about this. They think the carrot of a job opening is enough to attract attention. There is a real why they are sometimes called “head hunters”. And hence the reputation of the trade is so negative.

Engagement:

In terms of engagement, most recruiters really drop the ball completely. They have met a person (possibly only viewed and screened him/her on every possible social network) but they do not maintain contact afterwards. We all know all too well the following sentence: “We will however keep your details in our files. Our agency is specialized in ABC profiles within the XYZ sector, and we hope to be able to contact you again in the near future”. How many times do hear back from them? Even in a newsletter form? I think this proves my point.

An then there are those recruiters that do get social media and the fact that it is about creating value and engagement, but then they are hit by the next barrier: It is a lot of work and they stop their efforts.

So what is the solution? Well, here are some simple steps you can take to make more out of your social media presence:

Find a champion in your organization to setup your social media.

Brief everyone in your team on social media is and how to use it.

Make an inventory of where everyone is and where you should be (which ponds to fish in – this is more than just LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter). Look at blogs, fora, video and photo sites.

Start a blog and provide content (not just job openings but real content of value of the audiences: applicants and clients). Establish yourself as a real expert in your domain.

Use social media to drive traffic to your website of even better to your blog and create a positive reputation. Twitter and Facebook are great tools to divert traffic to you.

Create a social media policy and turn your peers into ambassadors for the organization.